The Laws of Emotion

Chapter Twelve

I kept changing my outfit. I had no idea what to wear on a date at the go-kart place with my brother and Nick. I was pretty sure Beckett was getting annoyed with me every time I asked him how I looked, but for some reason, I was nervous. That had never happened before. I had never been nervous for a date in my life. Maybe it was because Beckett was coming; I had never really brought home a guy before, so he had never seen how I acted around guys.

"If you don't stop changing," Beckett said the next time I went into his room, "I will kill you myself."

He had on a white t-shirt and some jean shorts paired with his sneakers. How could he do that to me? He should've looked nice, but he looked like he didn't care. However, his dark hair actually looked like it had a brush ran through it, so maybe he did care.

"Are you sure I look nice?" I asked, glancing at the blue sundress that hit me right in mid-thigh.

"Are you sure that's the best outfit to wear while riding go-karts?" he asked instead of answering my question.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," I answered, waving my hand around. I noticed my fingers were shaking and sighed. My heart hadn't stopped this high rhythm since I woke up this morning. It felt like I ran hundreds of miles. It didn't feel good, either. "Do you really want to go?" I asked softly.

He looked at me and shrugged. "It doesn't matter to me. What about you?"

I shrugged, too. I didn't really know what I wanted. This nervous energy around me didn't help my decision, and I think he could feel it, too. He didn't say anything, though. No, he stared at me, and I shrunk under his gaze.

"Cat, do you want to go out on a date with Nick?" he asked.

I didn't know why a large part of me was saying no to his question. I thought he was really cute when we met, and he was funny. I liked funny guys. There was just something in the back of my mind that made me hesitate.

"Yes," I finally answered. "I do want to go on a date with Nick."

"Then I'll come with you." He doesn't mention why, but I think I know why. He thought I'm hesitant because I had a bad feeling about Nick. "Are we meeting him there or what?"

"Yeah," I replied, picking at one of my nails. "We're meeting him there."

He nodded and grabbed his backpack, slinging it around one of his shoulders. When he stood up, I was surprised to find that he was as tall as me. When had that happened? He was my little brother, but he was sure going to be taller than me. That was saying something because I wasn't short like Sophia was.

"Why are you bringing your backpack?" I asked, breaking out of my thoughts.

"I have some homework to do," he said, gesturing to the math book that peaked out of the open zipper.

"When are you going to do that?"

"When you start to ignore me and spend more time with Nick."

I rolled my eyes. Did he really think I would do that? I mean, I probably would've if I wasn't this nervous, but he had nothing to worry about. "Come on. We better get going."

We went downstairs. It was still weird seeing Dad home more often. He used to work days, but when he started working nights when I was about thirteen, I barely saw him. He would start work about an hour after school ended and would be home and in bed by the time I woke up in the morning. The only reason he took on extra shifts was so Mom could go back to school. She wasn't always a doctor; she was a nurse, but she went back to school for her doctorate.

"You two are actually going somewhere together?" Dad asked, his eyes flicking over the newspaper. He sat on the couch with his feet propped up on the coffee table while the TV played on in the background.